CHAPTER V _Moses and Aaron open their commission to Pharaoh_, 1. _He insultingly asks who_ Jehovah _is, in whose name they require him_ _to dismiss the people_, 2. _They explain_, 3. _He charges them with making the people disaffected_, 4, 5; _and commands the task-masters to increase their wo... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Exodus 5:2. _WHO IS THE LORD_] Who is _Jehovah_, that I should obey his voice? What claims has _he_ on _me_? I am under no obligation to _him_. Pharaoh spoke here under the common persuasion that every _place_ and _people_ had a tutelary deity, and he supposed that this Jehovah might be the tu... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Exodus 5:3. _THREE DAYS' JOURNEY_] The distance from Goshen to Sinai; see Exodus 3:18. _AND SACRIFICE UNTO THE LORD_] Great stress is laid on this circumstance. God required _sacrifice_; no religious acts which they performed could be acceptable to him without this. He had now showed them th... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Exodus 5:4. _WHEREFORE DO YE, MOSES AND AARON_] He hints that the Hebrews are in a state of revolt, and charges Moses and Aaron as being ringleaders of the sedition. This unprincipled charge has been, in nearly similar circumstances, often repeated since. Men who have laboured to bring the mas... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Exodus 5:5. _THE PEOPLE OF THE LAND NOW_ ARE _MANY_] The sanguinary edict had no doubt been long before repealed, or they could not have multiplied so greatly.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Exodus 5:6. _THE TASK-MASTERS OF THE PEOPLE AND THEIR OFFICERS_] The task-masters were Egyptians, (Exodus 1:11), the _officers_ were Hebrews; Exodus 5:14. But it is probable that the task-masters Exodus 1:11, who are called שרי מסים _sarey missim, princes of the burdens_ or _taxes_, were diffe... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Exodus 5:7. _STRAW TO MAKE BRICK_] There have been many conjectures concerning the use of straw in making bricks. Some suppose it was used merely for burning them, but this is unfounded. The eastern bricks are often made of _clay_ and _straw_ kneaded together, and then not burned, but thoroug... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Exodus 5:8. _AND THE TALE OF THE BRICKS_] _Tale_ signifies the _number,_ from the Anglo-Saxon [Anglo-Saxon], to _number_, to count, c. _FOR THEY BE IDLE THEREFORE THEY CRY - LET US GO AND SACRIFICE_] Thus their desire to worship the true God in a proper manner was attributed to their unwillin... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Exodus 5:14. _AND THE OFFICERS - WERE BEATEN_] Probably _bastinadoed_; for this is the common punishment in Egypt to the present day for minor offences. The manner of it is this: the culprit lies on his belly, his legs being turned up behind erect, and the executioner gives him so many blows o... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Exodus 5:16. _THE FAULT_ IS _IN THINE OWN PEOPLE._] חטאת _chatath_, the SIN, is in thy own people. 1st. Because they require impossibilities; and 2dly, because they punish us for not doing what cannot be performed.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Exodus 5:17. _YE ARE IDLE - THEREFORE YE SAY, LET US GO AND DO_ _SACRIFICE_] It is common for those who feel unconcerned about their own souls to attribute the religious earnestness of others, who feel the importance of eternal things, to idleness or a disregard of their secular concerns. Stra... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Exodus 5:19. _DID SEE_ THAT _THEY_ WERE _IN EVIL_ CASE] They saw that they could neither expect justice nor mercy; that their deliverance was very doubtful, and their case almost hopeless.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Exodus 5:21. _THE LORD LOOK UPON YOU, AND JUDGE_] These were hasty and unkind expressions; but the afflicted must be allowed the privilege of complaining; it is all the solace that such sorrow can find; and if in such distress words are spoken which should not be justified, yet the considerate... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Exodus 5:22. _AND MOSES RETURNED UNTO THE LORD_] This may imply, either that there was a particular _place_ into which Moses ordinarily went to commune with Jehovah; or it may mean that kind of turning of heart and affection to God, which every pious mind feels itself disposed to practise in a... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Exodus 5:23. _HE HATH DONE EVIL TO THIS PEOPLE_] Their misery is increased instead of being diminished. _NEITHER HAST THOU DELIVERED THY PEOPLE AT ALL._] The marginal reading is both literal and correct: _And delivering thou hast not_ _delivered_. Thou hast _begun_ the work by giving us couns... [ Continue Reading ]